Cabin and 'self' photoshoot

Well I went to the cabin in Stanley this past weekend. I went alone, but it was so nice up there that after 1 day, I was wishing someone else had come up with me. I wanted to spend time outside, but it's kinda boring alone. It was relaxing though. I did some reading, watched a couple movies, watched some episodes of Arrested Development(which is genius), and attempted to catch some fish. This is me on the way up, I was excited.

I think I'm wearing the same shirt as last time, well, that's embarrassing.

I tried to fish on Valley Creek, it was just too high and fast to really catch anything, but I love the view. Growing up, Dad said that when the 'X' in the middle of the Sawtooths still has snow in it on the 4th of July, it's a good snow year. I don't know if he was full of crap or not, but, there's still snow in the 'X', so I'm assuming it is indeed, a good snow year.
This is me on the way home, I never like leaving Stanley. Also, there were some super annoying slow drivers, as usual.
I rarely have pictures taken of me, let alone, taking pictures of myself, but, what would a self photoshoot be without the 'Marlee' pose?

The Scooter

Russ bought a scooter. It arrived yesterday. He had to finish assembling it with dad's 'help', which provided Russ with much frustration and us with much entertainment. Everyone wanted a ride. Here's Noelle and Russell.

Dad gave it a little whirl. He didn't like it much.

Even Nicole wanted a ride. She's been wearing that lay since she got it a week ago. It doubles as a dangley, how convenient.

Nicole holding on for dear life.

Me with Chase.

Russ with Bo.

And my personal favorite:

NYC Part Two

Ok, here's my second New York blog...and it's a long one. We got home Friday afternoon. Our plane departed at 7:10 AM EST which is 5:10 at home - yowza. I've been fighting sleep ever since. I came home to Steph's kids for the weekend then back to work on Monday. This is my long explaination as to why it's taken me so long to update my blog.

Alright, so Tuesday we went on a 3 hour boat tour around the island, which was coolish, and informative...it was also hotter than hell fire. As you can see from the pictures below, it was quite enjoyable:

Then later we went to Cental Park and the Met museum. You can't tell from this picture, but Noelle and I did like Central Park.

Marlee and I with Alice:

Laura playing with her new camera:
Laura and I can not take a serious picture to save our lives:

Wednesday we went to the World Trade Center then to Canal Street. I love Canal Street, you can get knock off designer sunglasses, handbags, etc. I got a Dolce & Gabbana handbag and pair of sunglasses. Later we walked through SoHo to Washington Square Park where there was a guy painting a girl's body. She was topless, then later, bottomless...except for a g-string. Is that legal? I don't know, but it was hilarious watching guys stop and stare and take pictures. Much like this black guy is doing in the picture below. Thursday was our last day in New York. We went to B&H, which is an electronic store on 34th between 7th and 8th, I believe. Seriously, you should go to this store just for the experience. It's 2 stories with probably 200 employees, 99% of which were Jewish, and many of those were Orthodox Jew with the shaved heads and curled sideburns. Coming from Idaho, this was quite the sight. They also had bowls of kosher taffy type candy everywhere. At one point, Noelle was taking a handful of candy and an employee gave her a bag for the candy. So Noelle and I decided to stalk up at each station, filling the bag. If you wanted to buy something, you'd get a tag, go to the checkout, then go to another area to pick it up. They would order it from the basement and ship it up and you would literally see it on a coveyor belt above your head. At one point, Laura's item was lost in transit.

For lunch we went to Serendipity. The restaurant the movie was named after. Their food was really good and their frozen hot chocolate was delicious.


Then later we were walking around 7th Ave near Central Park in search of the infamous Black and White cookie. They have them everywhere in NY but the best ones are suppose to be at little bakeries. Needless to say, we ended up settling on Metro Cafe, a chain restaurant. But they were still good. But on our search, I bumped into a woman with her 2 kids. Laura said it was Uma Thurman. Laura is known to bull***t me - often...so I didn't believe her. I said "no it's not." she said, "yes it is." After going back and forth and me almost believing her, Laura finally said she was kidding and then as if on cue, Noelle says "no, but there's Roseanne's sister from the show, Roseanne." And to quote Noelle, she looked a little disheveled. Then not 5 minutes later, we past the guy that played Garrett on Crossing Jordan.

We rode the subway a few times, which is actually pretty cool, although, I wouldn't want to do it on a daily basis.

This is a picture Laura took of a random girl at FAO Schwarz toy store. Someone is obsessed with their camera. The girl was super cute though, and I don't say that about many kids.

On Saturday and Thursday night we stayed in NJ with Steph's friends Matt and Jesse. Thursday evening they took us to the Jersey shore with their 2 boys. Their little boy Liam is probably the cutest kid I've ever seen, excluding my own nieces and nephews.


Alright, so that's it. I am DONE.

NYC so far...

So far New York has been tons of fun. But holy hell it's been hot. We Idahoans are not used to this disgusting humidity. Anyway, our hotel is near Times Square, so we've walked through it a few times. So that's mostly what we did the first day. Yesterday we went to the Today Show for like a half hour and saw Haylie Duff, eh. But Ann Curry was super nice. She stayed out there and took pictures and talked to everyone. As you can see:

Here's Noelle having fun at Rockefeller Center:

Noelle, Laura, mom, and I were on 5th Ave walking back to Rockefeller Center from FAO Schwarz to see Conan when I saw a familiar face...Tallulah Willis. I was like, dude, I know who that is! Then I looked over and saw two people hugging, one of which was Demi Moore. Then I looked back to see who Demi was hugging, totally Gisele Bundchen. It was like a celebrity explosion! Demi looks older in real life.

Ok, so then, we went to Conan and of course we were seated in the upper far corner...lame. So therefore, Conan didn't see the shirt, but some NBC pages thought it was pretty funny. So anyway, Conan seemed super cool though. He came out before the show for a few minutes and talked to the audience. When he came out for the actual show and the applause had died down, I yelled out "I'm having your baby!" Then Conan said, "ok, that was appropriate." Ha. Laura kept begging me to do it, I wasn't going to, then it just suddenly came out! I felt like an idiot, but you could barely hear it. Kate Hudson was the guest, along with Robert Smigel. He's the voice of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and a writer on SNL.

Then last night we went to Carmine's restaurant in Times Square:Marlee outside Carmine's (thought it was a cute picture):

Me outside Carmine's:

Then me and Marlee:

Can you find mom?

We were in the middle of Times Square and I think there was a movie being filmed like 20 feet from where that above picture was taken. Anyway, I saw Dominique Swain watching behind the camera. Most of you probably don't know who she is, but, she was the daughter in Face/Off, she was also in Alpha Dog, and some other movies.

Then today we were eating lunch at a bakery and I swear Dan and Jenny's mom from 'Gossip Girl' came in, but I'm not 100% sure, whatever. Then we went to the Met and walked through Central Park. Then got on the subway to go back to the hotel and Ana Gasteyer (former SNL cast member) got on the subway with her husband, daugher, and baby. Laura talked to her for a minute about her daughter.

So that's it so far, tomorrow we're going to lower Manhattan.

*UPDATED* The Woman, The Myth, The Legend...

...That is Noelle...in her super gay 'Conan/Noelle Mated' shirt. So far, Josie is the ugliest baby I have ever seen.

Noelle refuses to pack the shirt herself, she claims she doesn't "have room". I don't know what her deal is, it's not like it's ugly or embarrassing to wear.

I am so excited about this, I can't even tell you. So far, the guest is TBA, which makes me a little nervous, what if they decide not to tape that day? It's driving me nuts. UPDATE: I finally found out who will be on Conan on 6/9, Kate Hudson. I was afraid is was going to be like, Bob Saget or John Tesh, so this is good, ok?

We're leaving for New York on Saturday morning. Hopefully I'll see some famous people again. I'm such a dork, last time I was in New York I would look at everyone as I was walking down the streets to see if I saw anyone famous. My efforts were fruitless until the final day, I saw 'Doogie Howser', Howard Stern, and some guy that's in skits on Conan O'Brien, who I'm assuming is a writer. So we'll see, I'll keep you posted, don't you worry about that.